Audi A3 Prices Paid and Buying Experiences

Comments

Wow, that's great. Congrats on your new '08 A3. Did you direct factory order? (As there aren't any '08 A3s on the showroom floors yet where I am from). How long did you have to wait for your order to arrive? You mentioned power driver seat is part of the S-Line page for the '08s any other new changes like that that you can share?

The A3 has a combination of performance, refinement and size which cannot be found in other makes, and I like how the little car feels when driven. There may be technically better AWD systems then that found in the A3, but the A3 Quattro is more reassuring to me then no AWD at all. Living in Virginia, we don't see that much snow, but when it does, my overly hilly neighborhood does not cope well, and perhaps, neither do I. No major problems in snow in the past with the Saab Convertible it's replacing, and I hope to remain out of the ditch in the future.

From the manual of A3, it seems that there are two storage compartments in both front seats. But I only found one in the passenger seat of my A3, while no one in the driver seat. I am not sure if it is because my car has premimum package which includes power driver seat. Can anyone confirm with it? How many storage compartments in the front seats are in your A3? Thanks a lot!

I'm considering trading my wonderful, precious Z4 to a more practical Audi A3. I need to drive a lot more in the future in a more demanding climate etc. etc.

Anyway, I checked the pricing in Edmunds, and the MSRP of a 2.0 T with automatic transmission and the options I wanted was $33,070. Invoice was $30,614 and the TMV was $32,963! In other words, it seems that people are paying close to the MSRP for the 2008 A3.

Is this true? Has anyone bought a 2008 A3 recently? If yes, what kind of deals have you been able to negotiate? I'm in Southern California.

Thanks so much for any assistance! I made a great deal on my Z4 three years ago and want to go to the dealership prepared this time, too...

I'm in practically the same boat Z4girl, only I'm in Ohio instead of beautiful, sunny Southern California. So I have the same question. Anyone getting great deals on the '08 A3? I'm not paying close to sticker. If that's what it takes, I'll shop on.

Looking at a new 2007 A3. MSRP is $32730 which includes $590 for Audi Care and $995 for Protection Package. The offer is $27900. I know that Audi dropped the free maintenance program and this dealer told me that all Audi dealers will accept this. The protection package I feel is bogus. How do I know what the dealer's invoice was for these two items and can I try to get a lower offer because of these two items. Can I do better than the $27900 offer. They seem eager to get rid of the 2007 - they already have the 2008's on the lot. Thanks for all comments.

What type of $$$ (dealer cash to customer)is available for 2007 A4 purchase? Offer is $27900 for a new 2007 A4 2.0T w/auto trans, wood, premium and blue paint that carries a $750 charge. Can I get them down lower? Thanks in advance.

I bought a 2008 A3 a little more than a week ago. I thought I would detail some of my buying experiences, since it may help some people (several of these postings helped me).

Hmm: where to start. I live in San Francisco, CA, and parking is an issue. These fit in quite a few places, and I have begun to see a lot of them around. It also seems to have enough power to enjoy driving (I came from a Lexus ES300, so many, many cars including the 911 that was right next to my A3 would have provided a better driving experience--not that my Lexus did not do exactly what I wanted it to do). I got the 2.0, and may think about having it chipped at some point. But I would not like getting worse gas mileage, and it has enough pickup (or my foot has enough lead in it) that I have spun the tires at least three times since picking it up.

I am not a fan of the negotiation--I simply am willing to pay or not. I did a lot of research and test driving before deciding on this car (choices were the A3, the new Smart Fortwo, and Lexus IS250--more on this later). I knew which options I wanted, and in what order. There are three dealerships in a reasonable area, and they all were willing to go to $500 over invoice without any discussion. By the way, the dealer I eventually bought from swears that Edmund's invoice numbers are a little off--but whatever. I was prepared to hear that, and it may even be true. Since I did not want to beat around the bush, I simply said that if you met Carsdirect price with the options I wanted, I would buy it from you today. I think that wound up being something like $400 over invoice.

Pretty much what I wanted, but could not find one with Rear Side Airbags without getting one with Nav--which I definitely did not want (the Nav system in this car sucks, especially compared to the Lexus and considering what you pay for it). All totaled without taxes and plates, it came to $31,258, I think. Not great and not horrible, I think. But all three dealers were going to be within a couple hundred dollars, I think, so I went with one that was closest in location.

Like I mentioned, it drives well. In some ways, the interior of my old Lexus is better (very quiet, and this new car definitely has some noise), and the new Lexus IS250 blows the interior away (and its electronic toys are much better, in my opinion). Still, the A3 has three advantages: 1) it is about a foot shorter (this matters in SF, trust me); 2) it is about a second quicker from 0-60; of course I could have gotten the IS350, but its price was much more and the gas mileage was worse; the IS250 and A3 have very similar gas consumption stats; and 3) the IS250 is several thousand dollars more expensive. I cannot say this mattered to me a great deal, since I keep my cars a long time, and since I expect any resale value on the Lexus would have been greater than on the Audi; but it is more expensive. It is nearer to the A4 in price and features; and in some ways on the A3, you can tell. No option for the Quattro except with the bigger engine--at which point, why (except for size) not get the A4? Also, no power front passenger seat. Also, the leather in the A3 is not as nice as in the IS.

The other car I was looking at was the new Fortwo that will be release early next year. I test drove it, and liked it. Parking would be a dream, and they are not going to be that expensive (less than $20,000 fully pimped). But it is an anemic car--0-60 in something like 15 seconds. Of course gas mileage would have been great. I did consider it, but I considered that I would be commuting out of the City at least some--and chose the A3. I think my neighbor is going to get the Fortwo, so mabye I will get some experience with it after all.

So, after a week, it seems an OK car. I got a little pissed on day six because I found that the rear bumpber had been love-tapped (happens all the time here, and after fuming for a day, you realize it was going to happen sooner or later--probably much sooner). I am having to get use to the reduced length of the car. I can get in to many more spaces, but I am still cautious--I look out over the hood, and think I am an inch away from something. Then I get out to look, and realize I am two feet away. It will come to me. It is similar to the back, since I have no trunk.

I am a little wary of Audi/VW reputation for build. My Lexus was one of those bullet proof ones--I really only sold it because it was getting a long in the tooth at 180,000 miles and I was hungering for new toys like the ability to play mp3 cds and use bluetooth through the speakers. But after three years of production, the A3 seems to be holding up OK. I did not get the extended warranty, though they said I have a year to decide that. Since I plan on keeping it for a while (8-10 years, I hope), I may try to get an extended warranty once I pass the mileage limit from a third party.

One thing I am not going to like is having to take it to the Audi dealership for service. You can reset the oil service warning yourself, but not the 15k maintenance alert, I guess. Lexus or Audi--I hate getting robbed by the dealer. Maybe any VW dealer could do it; or maybe I can find an independent garage to do the work and reset it. I guess they had offered 4 years of free maintenace in previous years, but not any more. Not sure if that is a good sign or bad (keeping the price down is nice).

Well, I think that is about it. My girl likes the heated seats and dual climate zone controls (I am just joining the ranks of new car features, after all). I think the BT is fine. I am planning on getting a Garmin NV unit (or maybe even one that gets put in to the dash, although I think that would probably affect the menu and BT functions), but not yet sure which one. Any recommendations are welcome.

I realized a little bit after I posted that while some of my posting belong in this forum, some of it should probably have gone in the general A3 forum. I just did not take the time to separate it out. So I will post a response to your question here, and then put any non price-related follow-up there.

I do indeed like the deep sea blue. The other two I looked at where Ocean Blue (wound up not wanting something that light) and Lava Grey (like this color a lot; would have gone with it had Deep Sea not been available; it was hard to tell it was not black except in daylight, of course). My interior color is the grey. I think I like the combination quite a bit (I did not want a black interior anyway--the heat--and there was a lot of that with the Lava Grey exterior). You should go check this color out; my friend has an older VW Golf that is Indigo Blue, I think she said. I would say it is similar, but not quite. And it does not have this sparkly pearl effect. Since they did not have an A3 in it where I lived (had to transport my car), I looked at an A4 with it. The A4 came with beige interior--was not bad, but I think I like the grey better in this car. I liked the beige better in the Ocean Blue.

This color looks cool in light and dark. In light, though, it can show dirt. It rained here recently, and I felt an almost overpowering urge to wash it. Not nearly as bad as having a black car, but I lived with a tan car for a long while--and it never showed dust/dirt.

Regarding maintenance, you may want to consider getting Audi Care.It is not free any more but at $590 MSRP, it is a good deal.It covers the 15000, 25000, 35000 and 45000 services.The 35000 service alone will probably cost you more than that.You might be able to negotiate the price or make them throw it in for free when you bought the car, but even paying full price is not bad.

I just purchased one yesterday, '07 A3 2.0T DSG Red from Audi of Concord, in the Bay Area.

Options:S-Line pkgTech pkgAudio pkgSky Roof pkgCold pkg

MSRP was $35,000. Dealer accepted my offer of $28,000 and even threw in the Audi Care plan because it is getting close to the end of the year. I guess they really wanted to get rid of their '07 cars and make room for the '08s.

I don't see why it is insane to lowball it. It's the end of the year and it's to their advantage to see as may cars as they can to make their quota. Selling 20 cars looks better than selling 19, 100 is better than 99, etc...

I'm in the Dallas area. There seems to be few A3 2.0T equipped with S-Line, especially one without Open Sky. The big sunroof is not very practical in hot Texas summers. I found one stickered at $33,420. Edmunds invoice shows $31,136. What would be a fair price for this car? What kind of deals are people getting on the 08 models? Thanks much!

Hey guys I'm so glad I found this forum. I tried out an A3 last week and am in love. I've always leased cars before, but the lease deals quoted me at a couple of dealerships are really terrible- mostly because of a very poor residual value. So I might be purchasing a car for the first time, but I have no clue as to how to bargin for a car. I was wondering if someone could give me some advice on pricing. I've been offered:A3 2.0L S-line 2008Brilliant red with upgraded tan leather seatsConvenience PackageAudiNav with 6 cd changerBluetoothXenon headlights60 month purchase at 4.9%MSRP $35,320Sale Price $34,340

I noticed that the Edmunds TMV is $34,164. So I was thinking of offering $34000 and asking for free audicare. Should I be more greedy with this?

I am in the market for a used Audi A3 and I was thinking that the used car prices listed on TMV is a little too conservative. The particular model that I am looking for 2006 A3 6-speed MT with leather seats and less than 30,000 miles is listed at a dealer price of $18,500 on TMV. But I cannot find a used A3 with the options I want for less than $22,000 anywhere.

So is the TMV price really conservative or will the prices for a 2006 model come down later in the year since it is still Q1 of 2008?

I think that the reality of life is somewhere inbetween the TMV of 18.5K and the asking price of 22K+. I'd say if I were selling my 2006 A3 sport package with DSG I'd want at least 21K to let it go and I have 35K miles.

In socal we see 06 A3s getting listed for 22-23k with 25-30k miles. Cracks us up as we bought our 2006 DSG with 12k miles on it for 22.5k in March of 07. Not often you can buy a used car and feel like you can resell it for the same price a year later.

Here's what I paid for my wife's A3 in Maryland...probably could have negotiated price down a bit more but liked the dealership and didn't want to have to go 50 miles to the other Audi dealerships who were basically selling at or below invoice.